End of week one

We've just ended our first week here in Portalon, Costa Rica and what a wonderful week it's been.  Our trips generally start out as intentionally uneventful so we can acclimate ourselves to our new surroundings so the blog starts out a bit slow.

We love it here.  The weather has been perfect with warm, sunny days and clear cool evenings.





Waking up each morning and enjoying our first cup of coffee is great.

So many birds and animal noises of one kind or another fill the air, the view is great, and the plants fill the air with a fresh almost peppery kind of scent.  We can hear the faint sound of the waves in the morning and despite the downsides of not having a car, it adds to the relaxation we seek on these trips.

People are constantly asking us why we don't rent a car.

There are lots of reasons and for us it works out great.  Rentals are expensive and to me a waste of money when it would sit in the driveway 5 days a week.  Secondly, if I am infusing money into the local economy I prefer to put it a local cab driver's pocket than some greedy corporation.

Our driver Tonny (right) is as friendly as you get.  As we drove home from the airport, Tonny pulled over to the side of the road and asked if it was OK if he stopped and wished his mother happy birthday.  His mom had ridden her bike out to the street.

Tony gave her a big hug and put his arm around her as they walked and talked for a few minutes and he gave her a gift.  It was a touching moment and had we rented a car, we would have missed that beautiful moment.  Yes it is inconvenient for us and yes we generally have to squeeze everything we can out of our food supply sometimes but we wouldn't have it any other way.

We are more than capable of driving ourselves around to sight see and shop but again, we would rather spend the time with Tonny and enjoy do our best to converse in each other's language.  We will make a concerted effort this trip to try and learn Spanish.  We get a little better every trip but so far it's "Como estas" (How are you) "Buenos Diaz" (Good Morning) "Hola" (Hello) and most importantly "Donde esta el bano" (Where's the toilet)!

We've watched very little TV since we arrived and to be honest I don't care what is going on in the news.  Instead, we read, enjoy the sights and the sounds wildlife (speaking of which I got a tiny but painful bite from a spider this morning as I ran my hand down the stair rail).  We also found a jumbo bug of some kind running around but that one we managed to avoid.

Elvis (our property caretaker) is going to start practicing Spanish with Alex as they've already become friends.

We passed his families house as we headed out for our daily 2 miles walk.  Elvis called out to Alex "Mañana vamos a practicar el español!  (Tomorrow we will practice Spanish!).

We love our walks so much now.  We sweat like pigs, pant like dogs and our hearts pound like never before.

We keep our "walking sticks" with us at all times just in case we come across a snake, wild pig, or just need something to lean to keep from falling over.

I wish we could capture the true beauty of the hills and valleys here but I assure you, it's marvelous.

With our starvation diets and this wonderful exercise program we feel healthier every day.  Of course you wouldn't want to stand down wind of us when we finally get back to the house but ....

It is cleansing for sure and we drink tons of water from the tap to stay hydrated.

One other wondrous thing for us was the first appearance of a Jesus Christ Lizard!  Out of the corner of my eye I saw it running toward us on its hind legs.  Fast as heck and about 2 feet long (or tall?).

He came back later that night as well and sits by the pool.  Pretty brave little guy because he let me get within a couple feet of him before he ran off into the bushes like a frantic, crazy man.

We do have the occasional scary moments on our walks though!  The other day as we were walking up the hill we heard this vicious sounding barking and as we past a wall of hedges, we found ourselves staring directly into the eyes of this attack dog.

Lucky for us, there was a barbed wire fence (OK it was chicken wire) between us and we were able to escape unscathed.

The path leading out of our house (left) is a good example of the scenery overall.  The grade of the road is perfect for getting a good work out while still allowing us a reasonable shot at actually making it back to the house.

Our house from the road we walk on just to prove we actually to cover some distance!

We take our smart phone with GPS along with us to track the distance (and to find our way back if it gets too dark before we get back).  The phone has a handy led light we could use as a flashlight if worse comes to worse.

Since we stretch our groceries out to the last scrap, when we got back from our walk we had nothing to eat but a can of soup, saltines, and (I'm ashamed to admit it) M&Ms.





Every night another beautiful sunset (picture at the top of this post).  I try not to take the same classic pictures of sunsets like ten million others but sometimes you just can't help it.

Of course I still must work each day and I gotta say it could be worse.  My office (right) is on the second floor and faces the ocean and our deck.

Yesterday I spent an hour trying to figure out why I could not hear callers on my headset until finally, I realized I was wearing the headset that was not hooked up to the phone!  (Duh).

So I'm human :-(



Tonny will be here to take us to the bank, shopping, and the the farmer's market tomorrow morning.  Just in the nick of time since Alex and I had to split a hamburger bun between us so we could both have a peanut butter sandwich!  The side benefit of these self-imposed struggles is that food tastes better, we feel much better, and I fully expect to get giddy next time I get a coke!  Later -